Report: AI Use Surges, But Fraud Teams Still Grow
A 2026 report from SEON based on a survey of over 1,000 fraud and compliance leaders finds near-universal adoption of AI in their departments. Despite this, these teams are still growing in headcount and receiving larger budgets. The data suggests that AI is currently augmenting rather than replacing human fraud-prevention specialists.
- The SEON report found that 94% of fraud and compliance leaders plan to increase their team's headcount in 2026, an increase from 88% who planned to do so in 2025. - This growth is partially a response to criminals increasingly using generative AI to create hyper-realistic deepfakes, synthetic identities, and sophisticated phishing scams. A 2024 report found that 42.5% of all fraud attempts in the financial sector were AI-driven. - A survey of financial institutions revealed that 92% believe fraudsters are using generative AI, with top tactics including voice cloning (60% of professionals cited this as a concern) and social engineering (56%). - The use of AI by criminals is dramatically scaling crypto-related fraud; TRM Labs observed a roughly 500% increase in AI-enabled scam activity over the past year, with total illicit crypto volume reaching a record $158 billion in 2025. - The global scale of the problem is immense, with a 2024 Nasdaq report estimating that $3.1 trillion in illicit funds moved through the financial system in 2023. - A key challenge hindering defensive AI's effectiveness is data fragmentation; in the SEON study, only 47% of fraud and AML departments reported having fully integrated workflows, limiting AI's utility. - The data suggests a strong consensus that AI will support, not replace, human specialists for the foreseeable future, with 85% of leaders viewing AI agents as tools for augmentation. Only 12% believe AI will eventually replace human roles.
